I experienced this book as an audiobook. I own a complete collection of every one of Patricia Briggs' books and I am a huge fan. I am particularly fond of Charles and Anna and the Alpha and Omega offshoot series of the Mercy Thompson Series.

The plots of all of the books in this series are essentially a combination of murder-mystery and action-adventure, which is very much an expected feature of the urban fantasy genre.

As always for the author's stories in this magical world, each book builds upon the other, with events in the Mercy series spilling over into the Alpha and Omega series, and vice versa. In that regard, it was particularly fascinating to me learning even more about Bran's love for Mercy, which builds upon the new information in that regard we learned in the most recent book in the Mercy series.

I adore the relationship between Charles and Anna, which is the centerpiece of this book and every book in this series. It is always co-equal and cooperative, with each always there for the other, rescuing each other from physical danger and supporting each other emotionally. I particularly love the way that Charles's wolf spirit within him, Brother Wolf, can communicate mentally via ESP with Anna. Charles and Anna enjoy a romantic and eternal kind of soulmate relationship.

Because this series began and has continued throughout with the two of them in partnership, as co-protagonists, versus one of them being the protagonist and the other a subcharacter as in the Mercy series, Briggs has not found it as necessary as in the Mercy series to orphan either of them from the other as Mercy is often orphaned from her husband, Alpha werewolf Adam, forcing her out on her own, having to save herself from horrendously deadly villains. I find that a fascinating uniqueness within the urban fantasy genre with its first-person point-of-view storytelling of a lone protagonist, up against a hostile world. Though, granted, a commonality in the plotting across both series is that each presents a support network for the protagonist of fascinating, compelling, and sympathetic magical characters. The difference is that Mercy accumulates her support network over time, across the whole Mercy series, and a support network is already in place for Anna and Charles that is systematically added to with each successive book.

My one disappointment with this particular book was that a subcharacter I had grown very fond of across the five books of this series is revealed as a villain. I found that quite personally painful to experience. But, since this sort of thing is not uncommon in any action-adventure plot, I am not downgrading my rating of this book because of it.

The mystery and action at the core of this book are well done and very compelling. I also enjoyed the introduction of some new and fascinating characters to this series whom I am very sure will appear in future books and add to the emotional intensity as well as fast-paced storytelling we have come to expect and greatly enjoy in this wonderful urban-fantasy series.

Finally, the narration of this entire series has been done by Holter Graham, who is phenomenal. He is capable of doing male and female voices ranging from falsetto to deep bass. He can excellently portray old people, middle-aged people, young adults and children, all with equal believability. It is pure pleasure listening to him.